SOUTH OF BROAD BY PAT CONROY

Against the sumptuous backdrop of Charleston, South Carolina, South of Bend gathers a unique cast of sinners and saints. Leopold Bloom King, the narrator is the son of an amiable, loving father who teaches science at the local high school. His mother, an ex-nun, is the high school Principal and a respected Joyce scholar. After Leo's older brother commits suicide at the age of ten, the family struggles with the shattering effects of his death and Leo, lonely and isolated, searches for something to sustain him. Eventually, he finds his answer when he becomes part of a tightly knit group of high school seniors that include Sheba and Trevor Poe, glamorous twins with an alcoholic mother and a prison-escapee father; hard scramble mountain runaways Niles and Starla Whitehead, socialite Molly Huger and her boyfriend, Chadworth Rutledge. The ties among them last for years. The final test of friendship brings them to San Francisco and is something that no one is prepared for.